GavinJR

How urgent do you need it, as i may have one spare soon. silver too.

If you're definitely going to have one available I can wait, no problem. Just want to find a replacement - all the eBay links and breakers don't have one at the moment

Let me know your plans.

Cheers,

Gavin

Has anybody got a bonnet for 98 Altezza (Lexus IS200)???

Mine is (or was!) silver but any colour considered...

Cheers guys

Gavin

Makes no difference with TC on or off...

Seems better some days, but just when I think it's gone away I go to pull away or drop down a gear and the engine doesn't do anything.

If I keep my foot on the pedal, I have to wait maybe 5-10 seconds before the revs will jump up past 4-5K and into the fun stuff!

It's almost as if there is some limiter stopping the engine reving past 4-5K. Bl#@dy annoying becasue I have to be REALLY light footed until I get to 40mph and second gear kicks in then I can floor it (in the meantime every granny in her Fiat Panda has passed me!)

I've tried it with the SNOW button on, and it doesn't happen - obviously the engine is reving as high, but it does mean that I can floor the pedal from standing without any cutting out/limiting

I asked the Lexus garage in Guildford if they'd service my Altezza, and they refused...

Right - Had the car for about a month now (Altezza RS200 Z Auto) and after a few initial problems (O2 sensors not plugged in!) I have started to get used to the way the car drives and how to push it to get the best out of it. Tiptronic is great for holding it in 2nd gear at about 30-40mph then flooring it!! :D

I have still got one problem that I can't find a solution for in the forums (I've PM'd a few people with similar problems but only had limited responses)

The main problem is I am unable to floor the accelerator in 1st gear (either from stationary or dropping from 2nd into 1st). The car revs to about 4-5K and then won't push any further. The engine is still running but there is no response from the gas pedal. During this there is a ticking/clicking sound coming from the engine bay (I think on the drivers side). It's almost as if something is restricting/limiting the car but it only occurs in 1st gear

As soon as it's in 2nd the car pulls through all the rest of the gears with no problem.

If I floor the gas pedal in 4th or 3rd gear the gears drop down and the car pulls nicely - except if i'm in 2nd and the car drops down to 1st.

I have been using the 'Snow' button and with this on the car accelerates through ALL the gears smoothly - obviously the engine doesn't rev very high.

Does anybody have any idea what could be causing this??

Happy New Year to everyone B)

Great news that Gavin!

Top end speed - has the speed limiter been removed since it was imported?

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i Don't really know to be honest... I would probably have to say it hasn't

Any advice how to go about this from experience? I'll have a search, but if you can recommend anything that would be great :winky:

Cheers

Gavin

If you look at the exhaust manifold and follow it down you will see the O2 sensors screwed into the downpipe just before the precats. They are wired into two connectors at the back RHS of the engine cover

Just checked mine and the the O2 sensor for cylinders 1 & 4 is connected to the black connector and the one for cylinders 2 & 3 is connected to the grey one.

This is an old pic of mine before I took the pre-cats out, you can see one of the O2 sensors at the bottom right, just before the thing that looks like a rusty can, thats one of the pre-cats :D

Yours will look a bit different as I assume you have the standard cast iron manifold.

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Thanks for that, you've been a great help!!

Checked under the bonnet on Monday night, and:

-cleaned the MAF Sensor with some contact cleaner as recommended in other posts (it wasn't actually that dirty, but got some soot off it and made it nice and shiny!)

-Checked the air filter wasn't clogged - looked fairly new. Couple of leaves in there so removed those!

- Had a look at the O2 sensors and checked that they were connected the right way round.... now this is the interesting part! As i pulled the wires out from hiding behind a pipe they weren't actaully connected to any connector (Black or grey)!!!!

Now I can only presume that the garage who fitted the new Cat didn't bother to put these back... which was nice of them!

I connected them up, as you suggested (Sensor 1&4 to black, 2&3 to grey), reset the ECU by leaving the Battery disconnected for over 10 mins and put everything back to how it was before.

I took it for a quick spin, and at first I was a little dissapointed - still spluttering/misfiring in low gears and not how I would have hoped. Anyway, took the car to Shell the next day and filled up with Optimax and been driving it around for the past few days and WHAT A HUGE DIFFERENCE!!

Really nice to drive, especially when using the Tiptronic to keep the revs around the 4-5K mark! :winky:

Still not 100% happy...

- The car's hit a sort of "dead spot" when in first gear a couple of times. Foot flat down and revs don't want to pick up (engine still revving loudly) - I have to ease of the accellerator and force it to drop into 2nd gear to get moving. The engine was warm at the time.

I will see how this pans out over the next couple of weeks, keep using decent fuel and maybe change plugs/coils?? Any recommendations for what sort to get and where to get them from?

- Still not overly impressed with top end speed. Pulls nicely through the gears, upto 80-90mph and then seems to struggle to reach the rev limit in 4th gear. It does not want to rev out in 4th and drop into 5th for some reason. If the road is VERY long and empty I have managed to get it to drop into 5th and got to about 110-115mph (but that was down hill with a strong wind behind me!)

I'm not sure if this is common with RS200 Autos? Is there anything that can be done to improve this (with compromising the lower end performance)?

I'll get round to taking some pics sometime soon! But for now i'm a much happier tezza driver

Gavin

I've no idea which part(s) of the the cat was replaced.  I'll try switching the O2 sensors around and see if there's any change. (any help in locating these would be appreciated!) - I'll have a go at cleaning the MAF sensor as described in other posts.

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Before you do that I will check tomorrow which way round they should be and post up

I would have thought the battery has been disconnected at some point, do I need to reset the ECU?

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Disconecting the Battery would re-set the ECU anyway

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Thanks Mac,

That would be great.

Hi Gavin

First welcome to LOC :D and the darkside

The first question is are you used to an auto box

When I first got the Tezza I had driven auto cars before but not really "tried them out", thought it real weird. But stuck with it refusing to drive the manual IS till I found out how it worked.

Have a play and remember that the box will respond to what your right foot does as well as the buttons on the wheel. The Tezza needs revs so don't be afraid of giving it some "wellie".

Anyway have a play and have fun and to answer your question I thought the same as you  about the slow bit till I got used to it. Used properly the tip is nearly as good as a manual and just so much better in traffic jams.

You want the revs up to overtake when you know a good straight is coming, to avoid kick down on corners or roundabouts use the tip to give you the gear you want.

Hope that helps :D

EDIT GOT ANY PICS :D

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Welcome to LOC,

Did ya try pressing the power button ,

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Thanks!

Yes I did! It give's a bit more welly but it still feels like i'm towing a lorry sometimes...

I had similar problem a month ago, my car was sluggish too, it was to do with a faulty speedo converter, here is a link to my thread

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/ind...showtopic=27318

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Thanks for that - I'd actually read through the link when doing a search.

The speedo readings are fine, I haven't noticed anything amiss there. But the sluggishness does sound familiar...

Did the problem go away as soon as you disconnected the converter? If so, I'd appreciate some advice on how to do this (is it an easy job?)

Cheers,

Gavin

Defo something not right if it won't rev above 5K, it should rev freely right up to 7K where the limit is, I assume all tips are the same as mine. As Mr Singh says the fun is at the top end 4-7K.

You say that the dealer replaced the cat? was that the main cat or the pre-cats? If it was the pre-cats they could have got the O2 sensors the wrong way round. The tip has 2 just after the pre-cats, one senses the gasses from cylinders 1 & 4 and the other cylinders 2 & 3. That could mess up the fueling.

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It does get past 5K, but VERY slowly - a real struggle. It seems ok going downhill, but up hill it doesn't increase.

I've no idea which part(s) of the the cat was replaced. I'll try switching the O2 sensors around and see if there's any change. (any help in locating these would be appreciated!) - I'll have a go at cleaning the MAF sensor as described in other posts.

I would have thought the Battery has been disconnected at some point, do I need to reset the ECU?

Cheers for you help.

Hi Gavin

First welcome to LOC :D and the darkside

The first question is are you used to an auto box

When I first got the Tezza I had driven auto cars before but not really "tried them out", thought it real weird. But stuck with it refusing to drive the manual IS till I found out how it worked.

Have a play and remember that the box will respond to what your right foot does as well as the buttons on the wheel. The Tezza needs revs so don't be afraid of giving it some "wellie".

Anyway have a play and have fun and to answer your question I thought the same as you  about the slow bit till I got used to it. Used properly the tip is nearly as good as a manual and just so much better in traffic jams.

You want the revs up to overtake when you know a good straight is coming, to avoid kick down on corners or roundabouts use the tip to give you the gear you want.

Hope that helps :D

EDIT GOT ANY PICS :D

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Thanks everyone for the quick replys!

PICS ON THE WAY VERY SOON! B)

I'm not used to Auto - so I thought it was maybe me, and the way i was driving it. But driving to work this morning i'm not so sure. The car feels almost "held back", and the revs really struggle to creep up - especially when going up hill. I blasted it down a hill and it seemed better (Revs got over 5K).

I also had a sort of "blind spot" in 1st gear - foot flat down and revs didn't increase past 4.5K at all - eased off the accelerator and it dropped into 2nd and started to accelerate...

I'm near Guildford / Aldershot - Anybody know of any good, reliable places to get it serviced/Tested if all else fails?

Cheers

Hi everyone,

Just picked up my Altezza RS200 Tiptronic yesterday - very happy :D

except...

The car seems to be very sluggish, making it very difficult to pull away or overtake etc. There seems to be a real lack of power and the revs are not picking up... At the moment, it's actually slower than my old Pug 306!

I was burning along the M1 today, 3rd gear revs out quite well, but then when it drops into 4th the revs drop to the 5k mark and it's a real struggle to get the revs up any further (impossible when I hit a hill!). I tried using the tiptronic, 3rd gear is "ok", then when I put it into 4th it struggles.

The dealer did replace the Cat on Monday, and reading through a few posts on here mention that the ECU needs time to adjust??

I would really appreciate any advice you may have, and what to check - I can do a searh through the posts for the how to's but I just need to know where to start and some reasurrance that it's nothing serious!

Cheers (Fingers crossed!!)

Gavin

HPI all clear - only concern was that the model was not specified.

It had vehic emake as Toyota and engine type as SXE10 so all pointing to the RS200 as mentioned.

Thanks for all the help everyone. :)

Thanks guys,

hopefully be a proud owner very soon!

Should I be worried that the HPI/Log book don't mention that it's an Altezza RS200 or that the engine size is 1988cc??

Hopefully my next question on here will be something more in line with the rest!

Cheers,

Gavin

Hello all,

I'd really appreciate some expert advice from people who obviously know what they're talking about!

I've just been to see a "Lexus IS200" for sale - really nice car.

I'm a bit confused as to whether it's a straight IS 200 or an Altezza RS200 or AS200???

- The car badge reads Lexus IS 200 with lexus badge on grill.

- The steering wheel has Altezza on it and some controls and Sat Nav is in Japanese

- It's on an S Plate (1998)

- Log Book and HPI check state it's a Toyota (Model Not Known), VIN SXE10....., engine size 1988cc, Manufactured 1998 and registered 08/2000, Automatic

I'm confused because the SXE10 would suggest it's and RS200, but some specs for this say the RS200 engine size is 1998cc - not the 1988cc as stated in the log/HPI??

Really I need to know if it's and IS200, RS200 or AS200 for insurance purposes as well!!

Many thanks,

Gavin